Hey all! I’ve been hard at work creating some exciting content. For those of you who don’t know, I recently started live streaming on Twitch. Come hang out, say hi, and chat with me while I toil away on my current personal work. The schedule is Monday, Wednesday, and Friday 8-10pm eastern standard time. If you just can’t wait, head to www.twitch.tv/sculpture_geek to catch up on past broadcasts as well.

I recently found myself in New York, yet again with Ray Villafane and a phenomenal sculptor/carver that’s quickly becoming one of my favorite dudes to work with, Patrick Burke. Each year, we create a large scale pumpkin display at the Bronx Botanical Gardens. This year celebrated Frida Kahlo, Dia De Los Muertos, and Jose Posada. As such, we created a tribute to one of Jose Posada’s famous calavera (skull) illustrations. For more on that, check out the Villafane Studios Facebook page, or visit the NYBG website.

Jose Posada Original Illustration.

All Pumpkin NYBG Display 2015.

Over 5000 mini pumpkins were harmed in the making of this display.

On my way back home from a pumpkin carving event in Arizona, my entire bag full of every carving tool that I own, as well as a few new sculpting tools I picked up, was stolen right out of my luggage. So, shout outs to Newark, New Jersey for being such a nice airport to stop off at on the way back home. Hoping to replace a few key tools quickly, I had the chance to hit up the sculpture megastore, The Compleat Sculptor. I ended up picking up a few sculpture only tools and and just using some of Ray and Patrick’s tools to get by.

*Angels singing*

I went straight there from my bus in, so sadly, Ray and Patrick were already at the venue and weren’t able to accompany me. Although, I don’t think it would have been much different. Patrick comes with a plethora of fine wood carving chisels so, I can’t imagine he would have bought much and Ray, well, he appreciates fine tools but I have yet to see that man use anything incorporating sharpness, or precision and I constantly find myself harping on him about some of his primitive, caveman-like tools. Of no consequence, of course, as I’m sure you’ve all seen his work and while he might be better suited to use a rock, duct taped to a stick, than some of the tools he has, they seem to work great for him. That’s proof positive that its really more who’s wielding the tool, as opposed to how fancy the tool is. That said, to me, there’s nothing like a finely tuned, precision instrument, made specifically for the task at hand. Carving and sculpting are hard enough, why struggle with inferior tools?

Anyway, I wanted to share with you my pick ups. I have yet to use them, but I may end up writing a review on them after I give em a good run. I normally like to make my own tools from scratch, but I can’t resist grabbing some if they look real useful or just plain fun to use. Yes, I have a tool fetish and its a problem -I guess. Ive known sculptors who only use a few tools and get by just fine, but that’s not me. I really like tools… like, a lot.

So, incase you were interested in checking out some of the same tools, here’s what I picked up this time around.

The last time I was able to visit, I was with a few of the guys from NECA about 6 or 7 years ago. If you ever have a chance to go to this store, DO IT! Its fully loaded with just about anything a sculptor could want, and then some. The staff is friendly and helpful. They will let you shop in peace, and walk behind the counter to take a closer look, if need be.

Now, I believe a sculptor should make the majority of their own tools because its usually the best way to get what you need. However, I do pick up some ready made stuff from time to time. When I do that, its usually a tool that can’t be made easily without proper equipment. This usually includes teeth that have been precisely and evenly cut in or something that has a weird bend in it.

I would also recommend visiting the store yourself since a lot of the tools there are handmade, so the edges vary slightly in their stock. While I will probably go in and tune up the edges of my new tools even further to what I want, its nice to have a better starting point.

I’ve been asked many times to share my process of making tools so, look forward to that. In the meantime, I’ll be scraping away at the Deathclaw sculpt with these new additions in anticipation of the release of Fallout 4.

I’m back from Germany and wanted to share a little bit of my trip with you. On September 8th, I flew across the pond with my good friend and star kurbis schnitzer pumpkin carver Ray Villafane, joined by fellow sculptors Patrick Burke, Nikolay Torkhov, and Jareon Van DeVlag to create a few displays for Ray’s “Hubbards” attraction. Basically, we use Hubbard squashes as well as similar, fruits, veggies, and gourds and by using Ray’s Schaumstoff foam arms and legs to create scenes that make people laugh, smile, blush, and say “awwww”. Sometimes they are carved and sometimes, they’re not. Most of this takes place at Ludwigsburg palace in Ludwigsburg. However, this year, we also set up a display at Spargelhof in Klaistow/Beelitz Germany which is right outside of Berlin!

Welcome to Ludwigsburg

On our days off, we were able to head in by the most elusive train on the planet – the RE 7 Bahn and see what the beautiful city of Berlin had to offer. Well, that was the plan anyway. It seemed no matter which way we tried to get lost in the city, we kept stumbling upon the same indoor/outdoor bar that lured us in with its intoxicating view of Neue Kirche in Gendarmenmarkt and knowledgable, man bun toting bar keep. The walls on the inside of the bar were lined with larger than life photos of nude women which, doesn’t do much to help mask the fact that you’re a dumb tourist who can’t help but stare at boobs and such. Especially when you get more than a sip of alcohol in you after a long walk from the train station on a hot day. Regardless, they make a solid raspberry mojito so, I didn’t mind at all.

We made our way to the Reichstag building, the Berlin Wall, Brandenburg Gate, the Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church, the Memorial to the Murdered Jews in Europe, the French Cathedral, and more. All such breathtaking sights that need to be seen in person to truly appreciate.

Loved this war propaganda poster

Brandenburg Gate and its keeper

Reichstag Building

Brandenburg Gate topping

Berlin Wall

Ray wondering where it all went wrong.

Pacman

Inside the Memorial for Murdered Jews of Europe

Germany loves their sculpture 🙂

On our work days, the Hubbards took Germany by storm with a bevy of humor and what we refer to as “right up to the line inappropriateness”. Its always fun to make these displays since it affords you the opportunity to work out some deep seeded childhood issues become a comedian. An idea will pop into your head, and once you start working on it, it can change into something completely different that ends up turning into something hilarious. Making people laugh is a good feeling. Making a lot of people laugh is an even better feeling. Check out the Villafane Studios facebook page for more photos of the displays we created.

Mowing on some asparagus

Another contestant in the asparagus eating contest

Expectation

Reality

Hubbard-ception

Crash landing was unsuccessful for some

Its always an adventure with Ray. Especially walking through the city. We couldn’t find the correct train and very narrowly almost missed the last one out of the city and back to the hotel. As I was reading the map of an info booth all in German with no “you are here” arrow, trying to figure out where the hell we were and where the hell we were supposed to go, Ray wandered off to battle a serious case of the munchies by searching for the last, open tiny train station bakery that could provide him with just the ammunition to do so. He returned with some waffles. We were almost forced to sleep in the station and wait for the first train out in the morning. Ray would have been fine with that and I probably would have too, had it not been for the thought of having to go through a full work day without showering from the day before. After coming across a very nice person who happened to speak English, she led us to the correct station, praising Jesus the entire way, she almost converted me… until we found that the place she led us was closed for a holiday. Welp, guess I can still eat meat on Lent. Somehow, we stumbled upon the correct station and platform. We caught the last train out for the night. Coincidentally, that made it no easier to find, each and every time we had to take the very same train back.

We didn’t get much sleep, since we got back so late. But we made it to work on time, albeit very tired and worn out from the 14 plus hours of walking we did. The press was scheduled to be at the event early the next morning. They usually ask to have a fresh pumpkin carved, and ready to go so that they have something good to show to everyone as most people still don’t understand the concept of 3d pumpkin carving. As a result, we’re no strangers to carving pumpkins in hotel rooms to help things run a little more smooth. So, that night to prepare for a morning interview, still with basically no sleep, Ray needed to carve a pumpkin and I needed to process some photos. He was carving away and I was sitting there watching for a bit as we both finally started crashing. He got up from the chair in the bathroom where he was carving and lied on the floor and within about 4 seconds, fell asleep so hard that if he wasn’t snoring like a lumberjack, I may have googled the German translation for “holy shit my friend just died on the hotel floor” so that I could try to yell it at the top of my lungs while running through the halls. 911 doesn’t work in Germany, so that would have been my next immediate course of action. Luckily he woke back up within 6 minutes. I told him he should probably get some sleep. He proclaimed, “Nah I’m good for another hour and a half or so!”. Don’t know too many people who can keep that up. But, Ray can… call it a fearless, can do attitude. I call it “retard strength”. Off to bed I went.

Common occurence

All in all it was a blast! Met some really cool people, got to carve a few pumpkins, saw some really cool sites, had some great food and the most delicious beer on the planet which I just so happened to smuggle across the border to enjoy with my better half. I couldn’t help myself, I’m a loner Dottie…a rebel.

Yippee

Chris carving a pumpkin / hubbard

I’m back in the studio for a minute, so I’ll be continuing work on the Deathclaw. Check out The Sculpture_Geek Instagram for updates on that. There may also be an upcoming contest depending if time allows. Until next time.

With the release of the Sculpture_Geek tutorial available HERE. I wanted to dive a little deeper into my set up for sculpting. Today, I’d like to share with you my sculpting stand and clay oven.

Since they are already made, I can’t really do a full blown tutorial so I’ll just show you how I did it and what I used. They’re both simple enough and shouldn’t take longer than an afternoon to make both. Let’s get started.

Ok first up, We have a run of the mill clay warming oven.

Figure A

If you’ll notice the glass dish there. That is a Pyrex dish that is microwave safe. I throw some clay in that and stick it in the microwave. This gets things moving quickly. Just be careful when doing this because you don’t want to over heat the clay. It also heats from the inside and can deceive you into thinking its safe to touch. It has the potential to turn to molten lava in the inside with the appearance of being an unwarmed brick on the outside. So unless you’re trying to do your best T-1000 impression, avoid acting like its some sort of sculptor’s prom night, by reaching in and getting too handsy as soon as things heat up. In other words, take it slow big fella 😉

Moving on, broken down, this is basically a cardboard box with a hole cut in the top and front, lined with foil and a few add ons. Easy peasy!

Door closed

I’ve added a “floor” to the box to raise things up and move the clay closer to the heat source. These are just two pieces of insulation foam (also known as pink or blue foam).

To attach the foil, I used a little spray glue and double stick tape.

Inside

The clip lamp on top has a 75 watt bulb inside of it and to get the hole in the top, I put the lamp on top of the box and traced it. When it came time to cut the hole, I was sure to cut around the inside circumference of it by about an inch. In other words, make the hole a little smaller than the lamp so that it doesn’t just fall through while its resting on top.

Top

For the door, I cut three sides and left the fourth, to create a hinge so the door can open and close. I also threw a little handle on the front of it by cutting, stacking, and hot gluing some smaller cut pieces of cardboard. (see photos).

Door and handle

Now, this will keep your clay at a great working temp after its been heated. You can use an oven to heat oil clay but a microwave is much faster. If you heat the clay too much, you can actually start to cook the ingredients which will change the properties of the clay. While microwaves can vary greatly as far as power levels and size, I can’t tell you the magic number but as a guideline only. My small microwave takes about 4 and a half minutes to heat up a 2lb brick of chavant enough to put in the clay oven and use for the day. If you leave the door open and its cooler in your studio, you may have to re warm the clay once or twice during the day. but if you leave it shut, it should stay workable all day. I may add a small dowel to actually clip the lamp to so that it doesn’t slide around on me but I haven’t had any issues yet with the light falling off.

Next up,

We have a sculpting stand. This takes a little more effort but is so worth it and you’ll be happy to have one of these for years to come. I love my little stand, and I love it even more because it didn’t cost me upwards of $300.00 ;b

Broken down, we have a bar stool, a few extra pieces of wood to help stabilize and add adjustment, a large cutting board, a ceiling fan down rod, a threaded flange for the downrod, a small piece of rubber hose and a hose clamp.

You can find bar stools cheap all the time at thrift stores. I painted and stained mine to match my studio. Doing so, makes me feel like what I’m working on is important – so there’s that.

I’ll work my way down from the top on how I made it.

The top is an old cutting board that I also found at a thrift shop. I sanded, stained, and waxed it. Then I screwed a small block of plywood (also stained) to the center of the board. I attached a flange to that small piece just to help distribute some of the weight when I’m working on something. These are the same flanges I use in my armatures. I found a hollow, brass, down rod from a ceiling fan at my local hardware store. it happens to be threaded and fits right into the flange.

Then I used a hole cutting bit to just drill a hole through the center of the seat part of the bar stool. On top of the first set of cross braces, I attached another small cut piece of plywood, I drilled a hole in it so I could insert the downrod into it to keep the table straight up. This adds stability as well. I had to cut a square notch out of the corners of this little piece so that it would fit. Then screwed it in to the cross braces. In order to make the height adjustable, I slid a small piece of rubber tubing with a hose clamp onto the downrod before I slid it into the bottom. There’s another clamp on the top so I can have an alternate height adjustment. Tightened it all up, and vi-ola!

I’ve been working on a tutorial for the past few months and its just about ready to be released. You can see a preview of the project on the Sculpture_Geek YouTube page located here (link will open in new window) so go check it out.

Here, I plan on posting lots of tutorials, tips, videos etc.. lots of fun stuff on the way. Be sure to follow me on all the appropriate social media platforms and subscribe to the Sculpture_Geek newsletter located here. As a subscriber, you will receive first dibs on tips and techniques, tutorials, news, products, discounts, new projects, and exclusive behind the scenes photos and more. I plan on even having some guest posts as well.